


snakes and ladders (this smarts)

by quantum27



Series: a cup of good intentions (tron one shots) [8]
Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, One Shot, Other: See Story Notes, Past Character Death, what else is new am i right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:50:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26670157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantum27/pseuds/quantum27
Summary: “So, stealing the disk of the system admin.”He looked straight into her eyes, “So I’m going to ask you this once. Why did you steal my disk?"(a companion piece to 'Oftentimes a Master of One' though it is not set in the 'flynn has friends' 'verse. I recommend reading that first. But it should still make some sense if you haven't read it?)
Series: a cup of good intentions (tron one shots) [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872664
Kudos: 15





	snakes and ladders (this smarts)

**Author's Note:**

> timeline wise this is set before Clu has any real *solid* plans about the ISOS. and also sam is old enough to draw?? i guess.

“Are you sure you want to talk to her?”

Clu smiled at the security monitor as they stood in front of his office. “I can handle myself.” 

Tron’s eyes flickered, not quite an eye roll, “Alright. But I’ll be right outside the door.” 

Clu clapped him on the shoulder, “You worry too much.” 

He walked into the office purposefully, the door gliding open and closed behind him. 

“So, stealing the disk of the system admin.” He said loudly, looking to the other program in the room. 

She startled, turning away from the picture window. Her short black hair was wild, her coat moving fluidly with her. His eyes were naturally drawn to her left leg-the circuits there were arranged similarly to a drawing made by Flynn’s son that he had shown off to him and Tron, ( _ “A sun wearing sunglasses, ain’t that something? Haha.” _ ) Clu wasn’t sure what a ‘sun’ exactly was, the concept was vague to him, but the circuits sure looked like one. And then there was the color of the circuits: yellow. Not a too common color, but not unheard of either. But Still Odd. 

Clu walked to her, slow careful steps before circling her. She didn’t squirm like he expected though her fingers formed into fists. She was taller than him as well, probably the same height as Tron. It’d been hard to tell when Tron had dragged her in here, she’d been slouching, but now it was clear.

“Normally, Tron would’ve been the one… ‘interrogating’ you. This is an exception.” He looked straight into her eyes, “So I’m going to ask you this once. Why did you steal my disk.” Not a question. Not really.

She stayed quiet, lips in a firm line. Clu rolled his eyes, “I know that you weren’t going to trade it-or whatever it is disk thieves do- otherwise you wouldn’t have stopped running. Tron said you stopped to look at its contents and you went willingly when he captured you.” He considered the statement for a nano then amended, “ _ Mostly _ willingly.” 

She sighed, bringing a hand to tap at the side of her temple, “I needed to see for myself if you really were a different program.” 

Clu raised an eyebrow, “Different program?” 

She cleared her throat, “I uh. I knew. Clu One. In the old ENCOM system.”

Clue stiffened and turned away from her, walking towards the picture window. “Clu One…” He murmured looking out to the city. He was well aware of his predecessor. But not as well as he’d liked. No program brought over from ENCOM had seemed to even interact with him at any point before One’s death, therefore he was basically..lost to time. He only asked Flynn about the program once, ( _ “Oh.  _ **_Oh_ ** _. Well. I never got to meet him. Actually. But from the other side of the screen? He was the best damn program you could ask for.” _ ), which wasn’t actually that helpful at all. Not to mention that the User had moped the rest of the time he was there before he went back to the User world. 

“You really couldn’t just ask whether or not I was...One?” 

She walked up to his side, and shrugged, “Hacker instincts, dude.” 

Clu huffed lightly, glancing at her, “What...what was he like?” 

She blinked surprised, “Well, uh. Clu- _ Codified _ was uhm. A good guy. Intelligent, had a good sense of humor but it was hard to tell sometimes because he always talked as dry as possible. Uh...he liked books. Odd User phrases. Couldn’t throw a disk to save his life.” Her gaze became unfocused, “He was my best friend.” 

“This must be difficult for you.” 

“Ah. Well. It’s not so bad, I suppose. You really don’t. Act like he did...your body language…” There was a layer of something else in her voice, something Clu didn’t like, “Besides I have a feeling he would  _ despise _ being a sysadmin.” 

“Really?” 

“Yellow circuits, my dude. Yellow circuits. We hackers tend to not really comply with sysadmins.” 

He hummed in response, “There is a question I still have…” His eyes wandered to the window; to the ISO district, “Tell me, what would he have thought of the ISOs.” 

She furrowed her eyebrows, slightly confused at the way the conversation was going, “Codified would’ve been fascinated. He loved learning new things. And the ISOs- I mean, that’s kinda their thing, right?” 

Since she’d seen his disk, she must have at least some idea of what his opinions of the ISOS were. In fact there were a lot of things that she’d probably seen that seemed to make her slightly wary. He didn’t worry too much about it, she didn’t have enough time to get any information that was really important. 

He pushed his thoughts aside, “Yes, but learning was in One’s code. These ISOs have no directives at all in their code.” 

“So? I thought Flynn was always encouraging programs to y’know, grow  _ beyond  _ their programming. And the ISOs are a step ahead, practically.” She cocked her head to the side, analyzing him.

He whipped around to directly face her, “Flynn doesn't know what he’s on about when it comes to the ISOs.” 

The hacker scoffed, skeptical, “He’s your  _ User _ . Surely you can listen to him and see his point of view-” 

“And look where that got Clu One!” he snapped.

She took a step back from him, agitated, “Codified died for his User, yes. But he also died fighting the MCP. For  _ all _ the programs of ENCOM.” 

Clu crossed his arms, “And yet he didn’t even get the data Flynn wanted.” One in the end, could be considered a disappointment. 

“Oh. You think you could’ve done better?” Her circuits flashed angrily. 

Clu shrugged, “I fulfill all my tasks perfectly.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean? Perfection is subjective.” 

Clu barked out a laugh. She faltered, glancing from him to the floor. 

“Either way,” Clu continued, running a hand along his chin, “I would not exist without his, hm, ‘ _ sacrifice _ ’.” 

Her eyes narrowed, “Right. Sure.” She adjusted her coat, and then muttered, “ _ Snakes and Ladders _ .” 

Clu smiled widely, the grin stretched unnaturally over his face. He was done here. Any information he previously needed was received. Even if it was. Disappointing. “You’re free to go now.” He walked to the door. 

She walked slowly after him. There was a slight wobble to her otherwise graceful steps, stemming from the leg with the ‘sun’ circuits. He narrowed his eyes disdainfully for a moment. 

“I never got your name, by the way.” 

She glared at him, “You’ve got a lot of bark, Two.” 

He sharpened his gaze, his smile still wide, “Yes. All bark. No bite. Me to a ‘t’.” 

She shook her head, lips pursued, then said, “Hide.” 

And that actually threw him off, “Is that a threat?” He asked, somewhat amused. 

“Ha. Maybe.” Her grin mirroring his earlier one, just as unnerving. 

Then she turned and walked out the door, sliding open to reveal Tron, and now, Flynn. She stumbled at the sight of the User, so much so that she bumped into the shoulder of the security monitor. Tron raised his eyebrows, suspicious, of course. She muttered a User curse and kept walking, quickening her pace, her odd subtle limp becoming more prominent. 

Tron stepped through the door into Clu’s office and relaxed slightly, “Everything alright?” 

Clu nodded curtly as Tron turned back to Flynn who was still staring at the hacker’s retreating back. His circuits were unusually bright. 

“Flynn?” Tron nudged his arm with his hand. Flynn shook himself out of his stare, circuits dimming. 

“Who was that?” He looked dazed. 

“Nobody,” Clu said quickly before Tron could, “Nobody important, why?” 

Flynn shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, “Nothing-she just looked familiar, somehow.”

Clu clasped his hands behind his back, tightening his hands into fists, and put on his best smile. “She was just an upset program who made a bad decision.” He said, mostly to reassure Tron, who apparently hadn’t told Flynn about the stolen disk. 

And perhaps it was a bad decision. If she knew the things he was planning...she would’ve kept running.

**Author's Note:**

> So y'all are probably wondering why Hide isn't dead in this. So here's my explanation. 
> 
> In the 'flynn has friends' au, Hide stays dead. That's just how it is, however in actual canon, I imagine she does get rerezzed due to her user sending a version of her to the ENCOM system. Doing that her memories basically get updated to the point of her death and so on. She hears about the Grid and decides to tag along with a wave of programs that Flynn is bring over to the Grid, on the slight chance Clu might be alive, and so on and so on. The reason her user sends her to the ENCOM system I imagine probably has something to due with irl events in canon being different, I don't have an exact reason, it's a little hand-wavey. So yeah, Hide might show up in cameos in other fics, idk. 
> 
> As for Flynn 'recognizing' Hide, well. There's several reasons I could think of to why, but I'd love to hear what y'all think why he does that. (highly debated having his circuits flash yellow but nah. that was a little too obvious for me.) 
> 
> but anyway this story is fun cause it's just
> 
> Clu 2: ~exists~  
> Hide: Your vibes...are the *worst*  
> Clu 2: I know. ;)


End file.
